Easter Odds and Ends

I was lucky enough to go by Harry and David's candy tasting on Sunday and found these little babies on sale. My Harry and David store had so much extra Easter candy, they were allowed to mark it WAY down. This bag of milk chocolate chicks was originally $8.95. I got it for $1.97:

Pretty and colorful (although looking a little tropical for baby chickens):

Cute! No Peep, mind you, but still cute:

These guys are a solid milk chocolate choice. They are not as good as the milk chocolate rabbits below from The Chocolate Bear, but they melt in your mouth and are pretty darn good. (I'd put them somewhere between Hershey and Lindt.)

I also snagged this gift tower for $19.95 (I figure the boxes alone are adorable!):

There were a lot of different things inside. The most interesting were these larger than normal jelly beans:

These INDIVIDUALLY wrapped malted milk balls (who's ever seen that?):

And these spring pretzels:

They are billed as yogurt covered:

While these (Easter Pretzels) by the South Bend Chocolate Company, are coated in white chocolate:

I love those Easter eggs floating all over the bag! In the Catholic Church pretzels are historically associated with Easter and were hidden like Easter eggs. The Pennsylvania Dutch make pretzels and I toured a factory or two in PA. I like pretzels. Although I would have been bitter if my parents had hidden them instead of Easter Eggs. In fact, I probably would have grown up twisted. (Bwah, ha, ha!)

You know, both are really good and it's pretty hard to tell the two flavors apart, but the yogurt is a little lighter and I like it better. Both have about the same calories, so it provides no big health benefit. The best (or worst) thing about these is you can't stop eating them! It's the salty and sweet combo - delicious!

For the most part, I find those gift towers to be a rip off - $5 worth of stuff in $20 worth of packaging. But it was pretty and on sale, so what the hell.

This was the single most impressive Easter treat I got this year (drum roll please!) from our friends at L.A. Burdick:

Love the elegant label! And look at this fancy packaging!

This egg - about the size of a small football is inside:

See how big it is? It's a Rocher Egg - a dark chocolate egg coated with chocolate-covered, caramelized almond slivers AND:

Filled with assorted truffles! Can you say, "OMG!" Screw pretzels!

This is simply and extraordinary act of chocolate wizardry. Those almonds in that dark chocolate are to die for!! And the truffles inside are so rich (made in the French fashion with cocoa powder all over them) it's mind boggling. L.A. Burdick is an amazing chocolatier and one bite of this creation will convince you. These almonds were put to a much, much better use that marzipan - bah! A+++++ I will definitely be enjoying this for a while! And will order more treats from this amazing chocolatier!

This little guy (cute) was in Mast General Store. You don't see very many dark chocolate bunnies:

Made by Canipes Chocolates and Candies from Myrtle Beach, this dark chocolate was pretty sweet. Must be low on the cacao. Average at best.

I was completely prepared for these to be horrible:

Don't get me wrong, I love the way they look - the nostalgic scenes in great detail and color:

But I was convinced they would taste terrible. Yet again, I was wrong! The chocolate is much better than you would expect. The label says they are made with Belgian chocolate and that they are made for CVS, so I don't know who really made them, but they are unique as hell, very pretty, and they taste pretty damn good! Shut my mouth!

I saw this in The Chocolate Bear and when I read the sign - "Bunnies on the Half Shell" - I had to buy it. How hilarious is that?

The bunnies are dark, milk, white, pink and tan:

Dark is my favorite. White, pink and tan did nothing for me and after having the dark chocolate, I wasn't as excited about the milk chocolate. The half shell was festive but that horrible hard decorative edge (technically edible) is vile. But funny - damn funny! And great dark chocolate.

How cute is this delicate mini Easter basket?

A "big" milk chocolate bunny (maybe three inches tall - these guys are little), and a baby dark, white, and pink. Adorable - and all resting on Easter grass!

The milk chocolate one was delish - a nice milk chocolate with some depth - not too sugary. Dark was great - the other two - bleech. But adorable!

How's this for a creative combo also from The Chocolate Bear?

A painted cookie background (Easter egg) with a chocolate bunny on top. And you know what? It works! The cookie is good, but bland enough to suit the chocolate. Creative and delicious - the winning combination!

So what are the final thoughts?

Candy tastes better when you buy it on sale.

But glamour candy (L.A. Burdick) ROCKS!

I still can't be sure what will be good and what will be terrible from looking at it. Meaning I still can't judge the interior by the exterior.

Creative and funny (bunnies on the half shell) will always win my heart.

All those who experiment in chocolate, I salute you!!

There's Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby

Authenticity. I love it. I like people who are authentic - they are who they are. They're not trying to impress anyone. They want to be liked, mind you, but they're not going to change who they are so you'll like them. They can't. They just not wired that way.

Most of my good buddies are like this - it's something I can't explain, but I think you know what I mean. The only way I can describe it is they don't hold themselves too tightly. They don't hold back some aspect of themselves. They tell me what they think. I meet many people and I feel like many of them are playing a part - "successful businessman or businesswoman", maybe "corporate leader" or simply "in control." The people I like the most are real - they may really have it together or not, but they pretend nothing. They laugh at themselves and I love to be with them.


Other people I just can't connect with - I want to grab them by the lapels and say "Live! Be who you ARE not you you think you should be!" I need some authenticity defibrillator paddles to shock these people back to themselves. If only it were so easy. Being yourself is the hardest thing you will ever do - most people lost themselves to conformity back in high school.

I like authenticity in experiences too. Vegas is fun, but the Venetian is not Venice and the Luxor is not Egypt. Sure, you can watch a video of almost anything on UTube, but it is not the same as being there. Being face-to-face with people in a seminar is a completely different experience than participating in a webinar. I like it real.

Which brings us to authenticity in food. Many blogs ago I said "Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should do it." I said this about chocolate gum, about chocolate Pez, and now I will say it about See's Seasonal Pie Truffles.

Now I know See's has some rabid fans. Many people have told me how great See's Candies are. Here's their website: http://www.sees.com/. I saw this box of truffles and it looked pretty interesting:

Look at that design! Notice the crust around the edges - it looks like a pie! Yay! And look at those flavors - apple, pumpkin, pecan and cranberry orange! (okay, maybe not cranberry orange - that doesn't sound like a good pie.) But hey - apple, pumpkin, and pecan! Yay!

Oooh - looking good, eh? Pumpkin is milk chocolate covered, apple is white chocolate covered, and if you can't figure out the other two, you have had way too much egg nog. I don't even have to dissect these for you - See's did it for us!

Let me be honest with you. Pie is better. Why does pie need to be made into a truffle anyway? Pie is great as pie. Here's my take - cranberry orange is not my thing. I don't like orange in my chocolate. And here it really overpowers the cranberry. I hope no one makes an orange pie.

I love pumpkin as we have discussed before. Last night I had a canful of pumpkin with Splenda (a mere 140 calories - less than one and a half truffles!). I LOVE pumpkin. This truffle had a weird aftertaste like the Godiva pumpkin truffle. Pumpkin pie has never had a weird aftertaste.

Apple pie just does not cut it - it does taste vaguely of apple pie, but are you kidding? Let's think of apple pie - hot apple pie, flaky crust, melting ice cream - why would we bother with these? Apple pie laughs at these things.

The best of the four was pecan pie, but again, I'd rather have the pie. Or a pecan ball covered in chocolate. This box takes something great (pie!) and imitates it in something great (chocolate) and ruins both. Give me authentic pie, not chocolates pretending to be pie.

And I'll also need some defibrillator paddles and some ice cream.